HC directs MHA to issue exit-entry permit to stateless woman

In a relief to a 68-year-old stateless woman, the Bombay high court has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to grant her exit and entry permits, enabling her to visit relatives in Europe along with her husband. Ila Popat was deemed stateless by the Indian government as she did not have an Indian or foreign citizenship

MUMBAI: In a relief to a 68-year-old stateless woman, the Bombay high court has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to grant her exit and entry permits, enabling her to visit relatives in Europe along with her husband. Ila Popat was deemed stateless by the Indian government as she did not have an Indian or foreign citizenship.

HC directs MHA to issue exit-entry permit to stateless woman

The HC directions were prompted after the counsel for the Popats informed the bench that while the ministry was yet to decide on her citizenship issue, earlier in the year, the Popat couple had booked tickets to visit the Middle East, but the woman could not travel and her tickets were wasted. The court said that till the citizenship and passport issue was not sorted out by the ministry, it should grant her permits to travel abroad and return.

The division bench of justice Gautam Patel and justice Neela Gokhale, while hearing an interim application of Ila Jatin Popat in her writ petition last month, was informed by advocate Aditya Chitale that after being issued a travel document by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in November last year, the couple had booked tickets for Dubai to attend an event in February this year.

The bench was told that though the document was valid for 10 years, it did not serve any purpose till exit and entry permits were issued by the home ministry. Chitale submitted that as the permits were not issued to the woman, she was unable to travel to Dubai and the amount for the ticket booking in her name had to be forfeited.

Ila Popat had arrived in India as a child on her mother’s passport in 1966 from Uganda. She later got married and had been living here since then. However, when she applied for an Indian passport after a couple of decades, she was informed that she was deemed stateless as she did not have a Ugandan or British passport and there was no proof of her citizenship. After efforts to get a valid Indian citizenship failed, she approached the HC. Her husband, children and grandchild are Indian citizens.

Advocate Advait Sethna for the Centre submitted that there was some progress on the issue and hence no immediate orders were required. Sethna assured the bench that the petitioner’s application for exit and entry permits or visa document will be processed on a priority basis.

After hearing the submissions, the bench directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to make available the necessary permits to the petitioner at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Ila’s husband, Jatin Popat, said, “We would like to visit our relatives in London. However, as the exit and entry permits are not yet provided by the ministry, we are hesitant to book tickets, lest we lose the ticket booking amount again. We have written to the ministry as well as the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) and are awaiting their response.”